'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Gary Fenn

Gary gets to grips with Heston Blumenthal's take on roast chicken as part of our 'How to cook Like Heston' challenge

I’ve previously cooked Heston's perfect roast chicken (from In Search of Perfection) and it’s a brilliant recipe. But despite its relative simplicity there are a few stages in it that could be intimidating: plunging into water a few times, trying to cook a whole chicken in a frying pan, and chicken wing butter. So I was intrigued to see him show an even more simplified version on the new show.

You still have to do some brining; an absolute necessity in my book. A low solution of 6% keeps the meat moist without making it too strong and cure-like. The slow roasting is also there, “low and slow” as Heston puts it, and after a simple resting it's back into your hottest oven to finish off.

For the roasting itself, you simply have to use a meat thermometer to be sure that it’s done. I recommend Salter’s Heston-branded one but anyone will do. It is recommended that you take the meat to 75°C; Heston admits that but says 60°C gives you the perfect succulence. If you have a bird of spotless provenance that would probably be fine but I took my mid-range supermarket bird to 70°C.

And it’s tremendous, of course. In fact I’d possibly argue that the extra stages introduced by the Perfection version are unnecessary. You get a fabulously juicy, tasty chicken, plump with flavour and intense chickenness. It’s well worth giving a go once – it takes no more effort than a regular roast chicken, just the brining the night before and a bit longer time blocked out for the oven. If you love your Sunday roast chicken, you owe it to your dinner table to try this one out.

Want to join in? 

Thank you Gary. If you want to join in and potentially win a tour of Heston's lab!, just register with lovefood, pick a recipe from the show, attempt it properly, and let us know how you got on by sending some pics and a few hundred words by email to contactus@lovefood.com

Terms

Our standard competition terms are here. You must be a registered user of lovefood.com to enter. The editor's decision is final. Closing date is 15th February.

More 'How to cook like Heston' challengers
'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Erik Jensen's oxtail pudding

'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Qin Xie's steak

'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Fiona Maclean's chilli con carne

'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Neil Hennessy-Vass's steak

'How to cook like Heston challenge': Jenny Davies's eggs

'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Dolce Dini & Rosana McPhee's exploding chocolate gateau

'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Preeti Brar's flower pot tiramisu